This is a course blog for the classes on digital government and social media in the public sector" class taught by Professor Ines Mergel at the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, Syracuse University. The blog posts include comments and ideas from MPA, MAIR and EMPA students studying the use of new technologies in the public sector.

Monday, December 7, 2015

Role of Social Media in Countering Violent Extremism in Pakistan and the World at large

After the deadly
terrorist attacks in California, USA last week and possible involvement of a married couple whose family roots were traced back to Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, it is high time for Pakistan
Government to realize and take concrete steps to take practical steps to put an end to extremism and
terrorism in the country. Last year after thedevastating attack on Peshawar’s Army Public Schoolon
December 16, 2014, where the Taliban
killed more than 130 children, military and political leaders formed a National Action Plan to counter
terrorism. One point in the 20-point
plan called for the formation of a committee to counter online terrorism,
in a country estimated to have nearly 30 million Internet users.

Obviously, much of the
effort should be focused on ground clean-up operations; however cyber space
would also be part of the larger counter- terror landscape in this regard.

The Pakistan
Telecommunication Authority (PTA) and Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory
Authority (PEMRA) have been taking action against pages on social media and
online videos posted by terrorist groups. There are approximately 60 banned
organizations in Pakistan, according to the National Internal Security Policy
(NISP) document. Recently the federal government has been reluctant to confirm
a reported ban on Jamat-ud-Dawa (JuD), but news reports say that the ban is
part of the National Action Plan.The
Twitter account of JUDchief
Hafiz Saeed was suspended two months ago but the organization’s website can
still be accessed and Twitter accounts with his name still exist. US
Government has declared JuD as a terrorist organization still #JuD and
#HafizSaeed have not been banned by US Government or Twitter.Nation States and Social media companies should cooperate on war footing to eliminate content traces of terrorism and hate speech on the web

According to security analyst Ahmed Rashid, “Social media is a very big part of
recruitment in the West. In Pakistan it helps produce a point of view amongst
those on Twitter and other such sites but doesn’t have the power to recruit.”
Rashid says that access to social media is limited in Pakistan, as opposed to more
developed societies in Europe where there are huge online followings.

Globally, the
Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) is strengthening its grip by
recruiting online. “Look at our online numbers, this isn’t our main problem,”
says Farieha Aziz, Director at Bolo Bhi, a Karachi based nonprofit geared
towards digital security privacy. “Blocking sites will not solve any
problem as terrorists just recreate new accounts. This is just a face saving
measure for the government.” Aziz emphasizes the need for a multi-dimensional
approach to deal with social media. “The mechanism requires a lot of thought
and we are not even talking about it.”

Aziz believes
that the Pakistani government should be focused ondisseminating a cogent counter
narrative.
It needs to come up with its own websites that explain a peaceful version of
religion to provide a “soft” alternative to extremist views.

Arecent news reportinThe Guardiansays that the U.K. “is creating a
special force of Facebook warriors, skilled in psychological operations and the
use of social media to engage in unconventional warfare in the information
age.” The Israeli and U.S. militaries already have similar teams.The Guardiancontinues: “Against a background of
24-hour news, smartphones, and social media, such as Facebook and Twitter, the
new British brigade will attempt to control the narrative. Soldiers with
journalism skills and familiarity with social media are among those being
sought.”

“Psychological-ops
or unconventional warfare is fairly common now. But the danger of that is that
it can be propagandist when it’s run by state institutions,” says Aziz. “For
example, Israeli IDF has a Twitter account and uses it to valorize its soldiers
or promote a particular view on the Gaza conflict. Then locally, DG ISPR also
has a Twitter account.” Aziz adds that while this can be one way of putting
information out there, or countering certain views you have identified, it is
just one perspective. There may be others. “There aren’t just banned outfits
but also people who may not be militants but they are either sympathetic
towards them or subscribe to and promote their views. And this does need to be
tackled and it can’t just be done by blocking. You block one page or account
and another will be created almost immediately.”

Aziz says she
feels the country is still figuring out how to respond to online extremism and
needs to “sift through situations and come up with adequate, proportionate and
effective responses.”

The Pakistani
government has banned some websites but no concerted effort has been made to
block all terrorist sites. The government has blocked access to YouTube and
pornographic sites. It regularly shuts down websites run by the
Tehriki-i-Taliban, which quickly reemerges with new ones. However, experts say
that an online government policy will be severely crippled without
corresponding or supporting action in the offline world. Many mosques deliver
inflammatory preaching and propagate extreme views, clerics breed sectarianism
andfatwasare often issued against minority
Shia. Part of the government’s strategy in countering terrorism is to take
steps that show tangible progress. That means monitoring – if not completely
ending – public sermons that spread hate and eventually find their way on
social media in the form of brazen video messages and clips.

Onus on the Social Media Companies

Facebook, Twitter and YouTube also have a greater
role to play in countering violent extremism in terms of helping Law
Enforcement and regulatory authorities in Islamic countries to ban and regulate
social media technologies.

Until recently, Facebook has been asking clients to
report abusive or objectionable accounts amongst its 1.5 billion users. YouTube
has given roughly 200 people and organizations the ability to “flag” up to 20
YouTube videos at once. That includes the U.K. Metropolitan Police’s Counter
Terrorism Internet Referral Unit which has been using its “super flagger”
authority to seek reviews—and removal—of videos it considers extremist.

The
volume of material on social-media sites is a challenge. Some 400 hours of
video are uploaded to YouTube every minute. The online-video site doesn’t
remove videos itself, waiting for users to flag content as objectionable. The
site has had a “promotes terrorism” flag for several years. It hasn’t changed
this approach recently, according a person familiar with the situation.

More importantly, US President has recently urged tech
companies to take the lead in eliminating the objectionable hate material from
the web.

Positive Counter – Terrorism Initiatives on Social
Media

It is universally acknowledged that benefits of using Social media to the detriment of terrorists are far greater than those favoring them

Recently, besides
all negative impacts, users on Twitter and Facebook have also come up with lot
of good work in counter terrorism efforts. Plenty of Hashtags like # End –
Terrorism, # Close –Terrorist- Factories, # I-am-not-a terrorist have been
developed by people to support counter- terror thought and drive. Similarly, Facebook is also got plenty of
pages that reflect how people are gathering efforts to curb the menace in the
country.

This ying-yang
should continue to defeat the evil and promote the good to make the world a
better and peaceful place.